438
��SCIENCE.
��[Vol, T., Ko, ]
��Graj- of Harvard university, now on exhibi- tion at the Art museum in Boston. It is an excellent likeness of our distinguished botanist, and ft fine specimeD of the artist's peculiar work. It has the earnestness and geniaUty of expression which the passing j'eara aeem to impress more forcihlj* upon Dr. Gray's coun- tenance; and the artist has so wrought the stubborn material as to impart grace and ap- parent flexibility to the flowing locks. This admirable work of art, representing, as it does in such a thoroughly artistic manner, oue of the leading scientific men of America, will be worthily placed upon the walls of the college balls, with which his name and fame will be forever associated. It is a gift to the eoilege Irom some of the Mends and associates of the professor, who bave adopted this method of espressing their regard and admiration for his character and scientific achievements.
��Oke of the most striking characteristics of far eastern architecture is the singular respect paid to approaches. The means, it may be said, is itself the end. It is not so much what you are to reach, as how you are to reach it, that the Korean deems important. The prac- Wce is one branch of the all-pervading cere- monial. To his mind the dignity of an object is best preserved by rendering the access to it imposing. What we see in a nest of Chinese boxes, one within the other, is an illustration of exactly the same principle: the object al- ways eventually found contained in the inner- most is enhanced in value just in proportion to the difticulty of getting at it.
The approaches vary in kind according to the degree of intimacy they bear to the main building. First and outermost stands what is called in Korean the llong Sal Mun, or ■ red arrow gate. ' This is a singularly odd and strik- ingly unique structure, and to the student it derives still further interest from being pure- ly tartar. In origin it is religious, or, more exactly, superstitious: for it dates back to the earliest spirit-worship, — the old mytho- logical days, when a hero was a demigod and a king by ancestry divine; and so, because of bis genealogy, it was erected as an outer portal to his gates. For in the aboriginal faith, un- changed to this day, the king is the lineal de- scendant of the gods, and their representative and mediator to men. Nor did the custom stop there. His glory was reflected upon those who
��carried out his will, — the olHcial class. Proiqi his mansion it was copied for theirs; so lhalt\ now the distinctive mark of a magistracy is red arrow gate. This is what it is in Korea. But it is all the more interesting that its ao- quaintance was not made there. In fact, till now, its presence there was not known. It was in Japan that this curious structure first came to the notice of the western world, mid then in connection with temples. It is known there by the name of torii, commonly bnt questionably translated as ' bird' Originally the portal to Shinto shrines, it was borrowed by Buddhism, and now guards indif- ferently the approach to buildings of either re- ligion. In this it differs entirely from the use to which it is put in Korea, for there it never does service to Buddhist temples. At first sight, the reason is perhaps not evident; yet its use in the oue land explains collaterally its use in the other, and points to a primitive idea, of which both are natural though different ap- plications. In Japan, the mikado is a son heaven, and head of the Sbiuto faith, which is^ the aboriginal belief; church and state are OM Buddhism being but a later addition to religious wealth of the country; and, by a i taken onalogy only. Buddhism came to use of this gate, to which, in truth, it was _ fectly alien. In Korea, on the other hand, state is all in all. Instead of the state mei , into the church, the church was swallowed at least in its outward expressions, Then, when Buddhism came to be ingrafted the country, there was no excuse, such isted in Japan, to give it what hod then cei to be looked upon as peculiarly religious continued to be employed, as before, enl as a sign of kingly authority, and was converted into another sjmbol of Buddhisl show.
Its form difiera slightly from that of Japanese counterpart. It wants the curves that make that so beautiful a strui by itself. It lacks also the other's diversitf m.iterial. It is built invariably of wood, ai its claim to attention arises rather from a Oei tain quaint grotesquenesa than from any trinsic beauty. Two tall posts, slightly inctlDatf^ to one another, are ci-ossed by a third, ai^j bound together a short distance above crossing by still a fourth. All four are feclly straight. Starting from the lower, projecting beyond the upper horizontal pu is a row of vertical beams of wood, Bp< shaped. These are the arrows of the nai In the centre is a design as singular to the as it is peculiar for its mystic meaning; ti
��I
�� �
